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Which Overdrive pedal and Why

If you can only have One overdrive pedal in your signal chain which would you choose and why?
I ask because I don't generally use a drive pedal to dirty my amp I like the amp creating the dirt inhouse so to speak. Now I've owned a number of nice drives but basically they're window dressings. For those who use dirt pedals does it tonally make a difference?

OCD Baby!

OCD - I'm doing mostly Classic rock stuff and this is the one pedal that I can get a good workable tone out of any Amp and Guitar combo I've tried...

And I've mixed and matched a bunch! On the amp side everything from a 5 watt Champ 600 to a 100 Watt EVH 5150 III. On the guitar side - Tele, LP R9, P22, Gilmore Strat...and a bunch of others.

I play a two channel amp most of the time but I use it differently than most I'd guess... I EQ up each channel for A guitar - Say LP on one channel and Tele on the other and use the OD to go from clean "ish" to good classic rock tone. I'm rethinking this a bit now that the P22 is NUMBER ONE...

You guys are probably getting tired of me posting about the same pedal, but I love the Jetter Jet Drive. It's two ODs/boosts in one box. Both sound great and are independent. You can run either/or/both. With a single channel amp, I get clean, clean with boost, drive, and drive with boost. Te range is really impressive, too.

Assuming a fuzz doesn't qualify as an OD, I would pick the Fulltone Robin Trower Overdrive. I love the way that thing sounds.

Edit: I forgot to mention why!

I prefer to get my OD from the amp, like Harker...but there are a few things I like to use an OD for, and one of them is after a modulation pedal like a Univibe. It's a different kind of thing than getting drive from the amp. I'll also admit that I love Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs," and he follows his Vibe with the RTO. Sounds good!

I even use fuzz and distortion boxes with the level up and the gain down for this purpose...I tend to use pedals as boosts....no matter what I get I tend to use them similarly....it's very hard for me to pick just one. like you I prefer getting the sounds from my amps...then occasionally boosting.

that said I think that the JHS Klone is a killer pedal as is the Hermida Zendrive. I have been using the Wampler plextortion as a tone shaping boost too rather than solely as a dirt box. Pure boost I love the EP Booster.

I'll admit I'm a multi fx guy at the moment, the convenience is just too appealing for now. If I were to look at a standalone drive pedal, I'd love to try a Timmy and maybe the new Mesa pedals. They sound pretty good to me on YouTube clips.

I'll admit I'm a multi fx guy at the moment, the convenience is just too appealing for now. If I were to look at a standalone drive pedal, I'd love to try a Timmy and maybe the new Mesa pedals. They sound pretty good to me on YouTube clips.

My bass player has been trying to get me to buy an OD pedal.I just cant talk myself into it. I let 5150 do the talking. Im afraid that if I buy one I will grow tired of it quicklyand there it sits. I set my amp up with one channel clean and the other dirty. I have about 35 patches built to take care of my effects needs. My g-major has a nice lead boost feature that is controlled through expression pedal and it has a switching relay for channel switching that is added to each patch. I have 3 patches set at my lead leve lfor times that im too busy to use expression pedal. BTW. My bass player bought an OD for his rig because it got great reviews and sounded good online. He doesnt use it anymore. Hmmmmm.

Rockbox Boiling Point. I use it on the "clean boost" mode, crank up the gain and use my volume knob to shape it. Ridiculous tone and versatility. Also, much better for controlling your gain signal at reduced, smaller venue levels. The dirt from my amp just sounds too compressed if it's not cranked.

One thing I like to use ODs and to a greater degree, fuzzes, for is tone-shaping as opposed to simply overdrive. F'rinstance, using a vintage-style fuzz with the guitar volume rolled down will brighten a signal, compress it, and roll off some bottom end. An OD can boost mids, even with the distortion set low. Etc. These can be useful settings, especially coupled with use of the guitar's volume controls, to get variety of tone as needed on songs.

One can get some nice additional colors with pedals when they're used creatively, and go way beyond merely adding distortion.

OCD - I'm doing mostly Classic rock stuff and this is the one pedal that I can get a good workable tone out of any Amp and Guitar combo I've tried...

And I've mixed and matched a bunch! On the amp side everything from a 5 watt Champ 600 to a 100 Watt EVH 5150 III. On the guitar side - Tele, LP R9, P22, Gilmore Strat...and a bunch of others.

I play a two channel amp most of the time but I use it differently than most I'd guess... I EQ up each channel for A guitar - Say LP on one channel and Tele on the other and use the OD to go from clean "ish" to good classic rock tone. I'm rethinking this a bit now that the P22 is NUMBER ONE...

Agree 100% I have a v3 OCD (alittle more bass, then a v4) It sounds great in any amp..no matter what. I mainly play pretty heavy stuff so its nice to get that classic marshall tone at a decent Vol for classic rock stuff. Suhr Riot is prob my fav sounding OD box but it can be picky about what amps it likes, but it really smokes!

One thing I like to use ODs and to a greater degree, fuzzes, for is tone-shaping as opposed to simply overdrive. F'rinstance, using a vintage-style fuzz with the guitar volume rolled down will brighten a signal, compress it, and roll off some bottom end. An OD can boost mids, even with the distortion set low. Etc. These can be useful settings, especially coupled with use of the guitar's volume controls, to get variety of tone as needed on songs.

One can get some nice additional colors with pedals when they're used creatively, and go way beyond merely adding distortion.

I just found a good fuzz pedal that sounds ridiculous when you do this. You can mix it with either your amp's dirt or a tube screamer. Glorious tone! You roll the volume back and it gets sooo clean...

If I could only have ONE, it would be the Klon KTR....just adds a lot without coloring. Makes you sound like a better you, IMHO. If I couldn't get my hands on one of those, it would be the Green Rhino by Way Huge. Absolutely my #1 pedal until the KTR came out.

"He's kind of like a bear at a campsite...you think he's cute and kind of want to hug him, but in the end you know he's dangerous and is going to stomp on your tent and eat all your food..." - martysnarf